


Bandaids

by LePetitCroissant



Series: Bandaids [1]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: But also, F/F, deanoru - Freeform, episode: 2x02 Tina fights Nico Molly and Karolina, i forgot how to do this tagging stuff, i haven't done this in a few years actually, listen, listen i have a lot feelings about deanoru, mainly that i miss them so much, mentions of violence but nothing graphic, might add more chapters i hope to add more chapters, so i'm writing it myself., these kids were always getting into fights, where, where was the person A tenderly treats person B's injuries trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28255230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LePetitCroissant/pseuds/LePetitCroissant
Summary: They're always fighting someone. A look at the aftermath and the injuries sustained in their fights.
Relationships: Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru
Series: Bandaids [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120724
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	Bandaids

**Author's Note:**

> We were ROBBED of this show. R O B B E D. I miss my chaotic children. Remember Molly just throwing shit/people around? Good times. 
> 
> We were also ROBBED of one of my absolute favorite tropes of all time; Person A tends to Person B's injuries, sometimes tenderly sometimes by yelling at them. Lord knows these kids got tossed around enough for there to be a bruise or two. So. I'm going to write it myself. Mind you, I've been trying to write this since before September, I think, and it's barely coming together. So right now, it's just the one chapter, but I'm hoping to write more. But just in case, I'm gonna mark this as complete for the time being. 
> 
> Fun fact: I personally have this thing I lovingly refer to as my "janky joints", or y'know, hypermobility where my joints extends beyond the normal range - I can bend my fingers back far enough to touch the back of my hand, for example. I went to a doctor about it once, he told me I might be more prone to dislocating things - which I have, both shoulders and an elbow as a child lol. So. I HC that Nico has this too. 
> 
> Anyway. I'm on tumblr, find me at dishonoringthefamilycow if you wanna pop into my inbox about this.

Not too long after Molly’s parents died, the PRIDE parents took their children to the park.

Karolina and Gert took Molly to the swings.

Amy and Alex were busy playing a pretend game about spies and secret agents, running all over the place and climbing anything in sight.

Nico – perhaps the smallest in size of their group, not including Molly – had marched right up to the platform leading to the monkey bars, staring it down defiantly as Chase stood below smugly, teasing her that she’d be too short and too scared to swing.

But he dared her, and Nico was little but she was never one to back down from a dare, not even then.

She swung.

She lost her grip.

She fell with a screech.

Later, after her Mommy and Daddy had taken her to the doctor and gotten her arm to stop hurting, telling her that she’d need to wear this funny thing that kinda looked like one of her Daddy’s ties – her Mommy called it a sling – for a little bit, Nico remembers her big sister sneaking her a lollipop after dinner, and both her Mommy and Daddy cuddling her extra close that night as they read her to sleep.

Nico has a lot of memories that used to be filled with the same warmth and love she felt that night.

They’re all tainted now.

And yet, that’s the one night she can’t stop thinking about tonight, after settling into a newly-powered Hostel, with the Staff of One sitting on her nightstand, and her entire body aching.

Her mother, whom despite seeming like a frigid robot to the outside world, always had the warmest touch and the softest words for Nico and Amy whenever they were hurt, even if it were as little as slipping and falling on their butts.

Today, her mother gave her all of her aches and pains.

Her father, who was always doting and kind, would pick her up and put her on his shoulders as he sneaked them to their favorite ice cream parlor before lunch, and would proceed to play innocent as he treated her to a cupcake after their lunch, as if Tina didn’t know exactly what was happening.

Today, her father stood by and watched as Tina fought Nico, as Tina almost drowned Molly in a frozen pool, as Tina almost hurt Karolina-

Nico’s gaze shifts back to the Staff, her mind reeling for days now about how quickly her life has turned upside down,

In theory, she’s been aware that their parents were bad people, that they did bad things. She even understood this when they broke into Graciella’s home and found her staring lifelessly at the ceiling. In her mind, she knew that nothing would ever be the same ever again.

(In more ways than one, her brain reminds her as her eyes catch momentarily on Karolina’s sleeping form.)

But there is an aching bruise across her chest, left there by her mother- _Tina’s_ booted-heels kicking her away from grabbing the Staff that draws her attention back to the mirror she’s standing in front of it, taunting her with the reality that- she’s an orphan in a way.

That today, “Mom” has become “Tina” and her already fractured family has crumbled to dust.

That the theory of them being bad people, which she had learned in the same way she used to learn her history assignments or worked through her biology lab project – in a detached, factual way – is actually their reality, and suddenly that aching bruise that’s keeping her awake isn’t the only reason she can’t take a deep breath.

She struggles to regulate her breathing, to keep quiet so as to not wake up Karolina.

They’ve all been through hell in the past few days, her- girlfriend? Her Karolina most of all.

( _Her Karolina_ , she thinks, has a nice ring to it. She wonders if she should be more scared by how quickly she’s settled into this new part of herself with this girl that’s always been _just_ to the right of center in her life, all her life.)

(She _knows_ that, no matter where they go or what happens from here on out, a part of her is _always_ going to be _Karolina’s Nico._ )

Thinking about Karolina, pondering their growing bond and newfound relationship – already tested by the events of the day, and really, just leave it to Tina to hinder something good in Nico’s life _without even knowing about its existence_ – calms Nico and distracts her from the ache in her chest enough that she doesn’t notice Karolina’s hand reaching across the space she was occupying when they settled in for sleep, only to touch cooling, bare sheets, prompting her to crinkle an eye open to look for Nico.

When she croaks Nico’s name, sleep-laden and husky, Nico’s heart does backflips, and her stomach shoots off the end of a rollercoaster.

Her limbs, however, move much calmer than her insides do as she turns and walks back to the bed, crawling in slowly with a gentle smile, settling in beside Karolina, quiet when she murmurs, “Hey, I’m here. Sorry if I woke you; I can’t really sleep…”

And, yeah okay, her bruise isn’t _that_ bad, it’s mostly the memories and her newfound realizations that came from the events of the day that hurt the most, but a bruise is a bruise and they tend to be sore to the touch. So when Karolina grumbles something incoherent under her breath, and scoots over to flop her face right into Nico’s chest to fall back asleep, Nico tries not to tense up _too_ much.

Karolina, for her part, isn’t stupid.

She pulls back to look up at Nico’s face, now fully frowning as she takes in Nico’s features being willed into relaxing and not reveal anything. Her memories supply that she remembers Nico tensing up earlier too, when they talked and hugged and danced to a fuzzy song on a radio not connected to electricity.

“Nico, are you hurt?”

What a stupid question, she thinks to herself, because she was there when they fought Tina, and she – blushingly – remembers seeing hints of purple when she accidentally walked back into the bedroom before Nico was completely done changing for sleep.

But she isn’t stupid; she knows Nico won’t talk about it unless she’s ready, _knows_ deep in her soul that _she_ would be the one Nico would talk to when she’s ready. That pushing Nico doesn’t always yield the best results. So she asks her stupid question and leaves the ball in Nico’s court, her eyes soft in the dim moonlight peeking in through the cracks in their ceiling.

Nico wonders if Karolina understands how much sway she has over Nico.

(Nico wonders if she herself understands how much sway she’s letting Karolina have over her.)

Karolina watches Nico half shrug a shoulder at her from her position on her side, not meeting her gaze yet as she mumbles about her bruise; “it hurts to breathe a little and I can’t sleep.”

Nico doesn’t say that she can’t sleep because this bed is old and dusty, and the mattress is lumpy to say the least. That it’s the farthest thing she could have ever _imagined_ she’d ever be sleeping in, a far cry from her lush and expensive bed, with its soft clean sheets, and her ridiculous down feather pillows, in her spacious bedroom in her voice-activated smart house, equipped with all the luxuries she always took for granted. She doesn’t say anything about the fact that they’re wearing someone else’s old unwanted clothes that are ill-fitting because Nico’s so petite, that smell faintly of dirt and sweat that never completely washed out.

She doesn’t say anything about being so very far away from the bedroom down the hall that her sister slept in, where the last few memories of Amy lingered just within reach for Nico to wrap herself up in.

She doesn’t say anything about the betrayal of Robert Minoru trying to guilt Nico into abandoning her friends for a family that ceased to exist when Amy did. About him standing back and allowing Tina to dole out her swings and kicks and frozen pools. She doesn’t say anything about Tina’s ultimatum, about Tina’s disownment.

Nico doesn’t say more, but Karolina thinks she hears it all anyway – they’ve all been hurt by their parents in so many ways in the span of such a short time.

So Karolina shifts, murmuring that they should probably ice Nico’s bruise – if they had ice anywhere in their dilapidated underground mansion – but doesn’t move to do so. Instead, she gently laces her fingers with Nico's, squeezing and tugging so faintly the pressure is barely there – still leaving the ball in Nico’s court – as she offers her arms and her shoulder and her comforting heavy presence, there to anchor Nico for the night, offers silently to take off some of the weight from Nico’s shoulders, from Nico’s chest. Offers to help her breathe a little easier.

Nico hides in Karolina’s neck that night, thinking as she drifts off with a kiss full of _something_ – too close to love, if she dares to think about it – pressed to her forehead, and the scent of sunshine filling her dreams, that she might never have the life she had with Tina and Robert ever again, but this moment here? It’s not too far off from her life with Amy.

She falls asleep with a deep breath.


End file.
